Parents of girls stated that their child would be most interested in pursuing a career in education and childcare (32 per cent), the arts (29 per cent), healthcare (26 per cent) and hair and beauty (23 per cent)

A growing number of job advertisements are targeting individuals with soft skills. More than half (51 per cent) of all listings on Randstad’s website include the term team work, just over a fifth (21 per cent) mention communication and other key words such as passion, dedicated, effective, relationships and time management also figure prominently

The development of this new apprenticeship builds on the recommendations of the report “Management 2020: Leadership to Unlock Long-term Growth” (July 2014), following an inquiry set up by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Management, which took wide ranging evidence from over 200 employers on the management and leadership skills needed by employers for the future

The world of computers offers plenty of opportunities to the next generation of hardware and software developers, as long as the children of today are taught the skills they need to become the computer programmers of tomorrow